Week 15 - Grade 11 College Math

This week we had the opportunity to see math, specifically mean, median, and mode, transformed into a game. I found the game to be an interesting look on this specific math concept that is usually seen to be more of a tedious activity instead of the fun game that it was. In groups we were competing to see who could get the highest average over 3 rounds of drawing cards from the deck. A little bit of healthy competition can make any work more enjoyable for students because it gives the students a reason to do the work.

This activity lets the teacher know that the students know what they are doing, while letting the students have fun in the classroom. It can also be modified for median and mode as well if there is extra time. This activity and the use of cards can also be modified for graphing. pick out cards and graph their numbers as you pick each card. Then the students would find the slope height(s) of their line(s). Giving something ordinary (like math) even a little bit of a twist can make learning more interesting for the students and there would be a higher chance of their knowledge staying with them for longer. For example, one of the few things that I still remember from grade 10 math was when the teacher brought in a wii fit; we each took a turn playing ski jump and took the first half of the graph of our jump and had to recreate the second half of the parabola. The task could have easily been menial, but the teacher took extra initiative to make the activity fun for us and that made it a memorable experience. When I have a math classroom, I would like to try to have a fun activity to go along with each unit to make the students' learning more memorable.